Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Are Anime DVDs More Expensive Than Western Animation?
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doctordoom85
 Posts: 2092 |
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I'm glad this is a question that it seems (at least in my personal experience) we're hearing less of. I get it can't be expected that the person asking just know how this works if they're relatively new to anime (or more importantly actually buying it), but a few years ago it felt like I ran into this question at least once a week online. Of course what was truly aggravating was how snooty a good deal of the people were about it by acting like anime companies were just being crooks by charging so much and that if something like LOST or Battlestar Galactica could charge the prices they do for their home video release then everyone could. Well, by that "logic" I guess the most fancy restaurants are ripping their customers off by not charging as low as Burger King. Hey, if BK can charge that low, shouldn't everyone?
At least this person just seems genuinely curious without making such cynical assumptions. So nothing wrong with that. |
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4466 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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"This is hardly news. Anime VHS tapes, usually containing only an hour worth of material, would commonly be priced at $29.95 retail, which was 50% more than most new-release Hollywood movies used to cost."
Not necessarily true in the days before VHS was priced-to-own. I remember when I was 17, soon to turn 18, in the summer of 1992 buying Wayne's World (still one of my favourite films) on VHS. I don't remember how much it cost but I think it was around $20, which seemed cheap at the time, but the movie buff clerk at HMV was complaining to me that, while that movie was super cheap, the movies he wanted to own, I think he mentioned a couple of Woody Allen films, were still priced for rental, which I think he said was like $150 to $200. Ironically, for a lot of movies back in the day, the Laserdiscs were a lot cheaper than the VHS tapes even though Laserdisc was widely viewed as a rich people's format. |
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mgosdin
 Posts: 1302 Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA |
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It's really an Apples to Oranges comparison, about all that Korra and Mayou had in common was the roundness of the disks.
As far as Physical vs Streaming is concerned, the shakeout will happen when one of the major streaming services goes dark. I know that seems so unlikely, but how many big names are gone or almost gone from the Internet? Anyone remember Excite? Altavista? Mindspring? So, I don't think Physical media will become a collector's only market just yet. Mark Gosdin |
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5823 Location: Virginia, United States |
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Hope not. It would be a sad day. |
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Brand
 Posts: 1028 |
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I think the thing here is with streaming you can watch all those one and done series and not have to buy them. As you know back in the day if you wanted to watch a series you just had to take the chance on it and buy it (or maybe borrow it from a friend). Now you can watch it first and then if you really like it buy it. But I am going to guess most people watch a series only once. So, no need to buy DVDs. |
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kawaiiguy
Posts: 5 |
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In comparison, pricing on BDs in the western market is far lower than in the Japanese market. Over there, typical releases are 2-3 episodes at a time, for more than what we pay for an entire series.
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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This answer begs the question, what will happen as anime becomes more mainstream? ATM The 7 deadly sins is a hit in netflix and like other netflix exclusives, it will be released in disc, probably next year. I bet it will be sold at Target, Walmart and similar mainstream outlets for a price similar to western produced animation series and chances are the company to get the disc distribution rights will not be one that specializes in anime. Something similar has already happen with Jojo season 1, which was released by warner home video. Of course I could be wrong, we are living in interesting times.
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Barciad
 Posts: 130 Location: St Andrews |
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It's Micro Economics 101. Elasticity of demand. Relatively speaking, anime as has greater inelasticity of demand than other DVD products. Hence prices tend to be higher.
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EonsNearby
Posts: 4 |
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I did ask the question out of genuine curiosity, but I also didn't think about the marketing differences between mainstream western shows that get a Blu-Ray/DVD release and a niche anime series that gets a Blu-ray/DVD release (I've also never worked in any kind of show business or media distribution company, so that may have played into it).
The only economics course I took was an introductory macro economics course, and I didn't really remember anything from it. So basically, don't take my stock advice. |
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phia_one
Posts: 1657 Location: Pennsylvania |
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I have a sort of love/hate relationship with limited editions. On the one hand, I really like having nice packaging to display a show that I liked enough to buy. On the other hand, I could care less about the stuff that comes with limited editions. |
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TarsTarkas
Posts: 5823 Location: Virginia, United States |
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Not sure if that was a thing. Before our recent streaming age, you usually watched your TV show on TV/Cable, and then decided to buy it if you were a fan. Some may have bought the DVD before watching the show, but I would have thought that would be the exception and not the rule. Who knows though, I could be completely wrong. I have always seen streaming as another way to watch TV, and would only think that streaming would only have a minor impact on DVD/BD sales. I have plenty of DVD's of movies, that you can't watch via streaming. So unless American's are getting tired of old and ancient movies, streaming is not the ultimate solution that many think it is. |
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Why were rental copies so expensive? Were they higher quality? Or was it due to some contract between the rental store and the media owners?
I've only ever taken one macroeconomics class myself (AP Macroeconomics was part of my high school program's required graduation requirements), so I don't really know much about elasticity of demand. Is the idea being that the smaller the audience the product has, the more it has to cost to be profitable? |
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residentgrigo
 Posts: 2416 Location: Germany |
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Just with with higher episode counts, less delays and less variety. The more things change. |
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Stuart Smith
 Posts: 1298 |
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It's all about why you buy physical media. If one just wants to watch a show, then streaming is fine. If one wants to be a collector, then physical media is the key. My personal issue lies with when companies try to mesh the two together. I personally don't see the need to buy western media on DVD. And I don't mean that in a snooty "Haha, anime is so much better than western shows" I mean that in most western releases tend to be bare bones or budget releases, making the collector in me not feel inclined to buy them. With the rise in streaming if you just want to watch a show then you can, so actually going out to buy the physical version is for people who want to collect. Usually the only bonuses I see here are either commentary tracks and maybe deleted scenes. I've never really seen a show go all out like my anime releases do. Bundling drama CDs, soundtrack CDs, picture dramas, or some kind of physical goodies. Also I detest any show that uses a digipak format for it's release, which is for some reason fairly popular here. Unless, say, Scream Queens has some kind of amazing collectors boxset, I find no need to buy it if it's just going to be the show on some disks. I wouldn't mind if physical media all became a collector's market here. It already seems that way given some of the comments I read about it. I remember reading a comment on these forums a few weeks ago saying how Japan was archaic for still relying mostly on CD sales for music as opposed to iTunes. I just shook my head at it. Now with technology like Blu-ray music disks where you can have hundreds of tracks on one disk, it's nice to see it taken advantage of for collectors. The day everything becomes streaming or digital only is the day I stop buying things. -Stuart Smith |
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jymmy
 Posts: 1244 |
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Unless I'm misunderstanding, it's the second: because they're rental copies. That is to say, the store pays more for them, with the license to rent them out and the expectation that they will make the cost back through renting them out. |
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